Skip to main content

KEEP UP PRESSURE ON CORRUPTION


There has been a flurry of activity surrounding corruption in recent weeks, with a few public officials caught red handed taking bribes.

The public deprived of services because of a few greedy individuals are understandably gleeful. 

However they are also those who are a bit sceptical, wondering whether this campaign will last or will peter out along the way.

It is heartening to see that President Yoweri Museveni has put his full weight behind the latest attempt and provides a positive signal to all parties concerned. He should be supported by every well-meaning Ugandan so that this drive does not fizzle out in a few weeks.

I choose to be optimistic about this anti-corruption drive, because rolling back the endemic that corruption has become, is one of the first steps we need to take towards attaining middle income status as a nation and for any other meaningful development we hope to see in the future.

We see it in our daily lives.

Beyond the morality of not taking what is not yours, corruption has wide reaching negative effects not only for the economy but for our individual advancement.

At the most basic level corruption concentrates resources in a few hands. A billion shillings stolen from the state coffers or extorted from an investor, is money that would have built several classroom blocks or treated patients at our public hospitals or graded a few roads. It would have not only improved the standard of living of hundreds or even thousands of Ugandans, but would also give them a chance to climb up the social ladder by providing a better education or underwrote a healthier life or created access to markets for goods and services.

Secondly, the corrupt in an attempt to launder their money buy assets such as land and buildings or go into business. That would not be a bad thing and may even be beneficial to the economy through increased economic activity, job creation and maybe even increased tax collection. But because the corrupt do not have to factor in the cost of money in their business plans, they distort the market for everyone, squeezing the genuine businessmen out and often times damaging the market irreparably as they also collapse for lack of business acumen.

But corruption has an even deadlier impact on society. If it thrives it provides the wrong incentives to the young and impressionable. It destroys the argument for hard and diligent work as the way to achieve wealth that is durable and sustainable. Why slog hours at a desk, spend years climbing up the corporate ladder or even take the risks and work tirelessly to build a durable business?

Our youth are being seduced by the fast life attained even faster, realising too late that the old fashioned virtues of honesty, thrift and good reputation are what one should aim for rather than making a quick buck.

This last point is particularly worrying. Because if we do not reconfigure our society’s incentives, corruption far from being the new normal will be the only way to do anything, making our economy unattractive to investors and development partners – local or foreign dooming our nation to mediocrity and hopelessness for years to come

A few years ago it was estimated that up to sh500b annually goes missing from state coffers. This figure has probably grown since it was first mooted, but for an economy like ours that is a lot of money and missed opportunity to uplift the living standards of thousands of Ugandans.

According to next financial year’s Budget Framework Paper, government has earmarked just over a hundred billion shillings for maintenance of roads around the country. If a road is tarmarced or even just graded and made all weather, it unlocks the economic potential of whole areas. The farmers can produce more because the trucks can get closer to their fields, the transporters save money in wear and tear costs from driving on smoother roads, the end consumer gets goods at better prices because of increased competition from numerous suppliers.

It would not be a stretch to say that for every shilling used on roads, a few more shillings in additional economic activity for an area’s population is the result.

But when a handful of people eat this money, the net effect is minimal for the society at large – they may buy houses, distribute some charity but are most likely than not going to book a holiday abroad.
That the fight against corruption is critical and urgent cannot be overstated. The benefits of a reduction in corruption will be immediate and far reaching. This anti-corruption drive must succeed.

(APRIL 2017)
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR GRADUATION, ITS NOW TIME TO WORK….

Thousands of students will be graduating from their respective universities in coming days and months. Makerere, our country’s oldest university will kick off its ceremonies on January 15th and the other universities will follow. The graduates have already had a taste of the real life, having finished their studies mid last year and tried to get employed. Many know by now that the world can be harsh and unforgiving. I hope many are tightening their belts in readiness for the struggle ahead. Some may have decided to kick the tin down the road by continuing with school. And others may have given up altogether. My prayer is that there are more of the first and less of the last kind. In talking to young people, I find that what is needed is a reorientation of their minds – a mindset change. Let me share with you certain facts to help manage their expectations of the world and how they can fulfil their potential in our context. First of all, the world owes you ...
Post a Comment
Read more

NOT ONLY THE HARDWARE BUT THE SOFTWARE TOO

In the middle of September the United Nations released its annual Human Development Indicator (HDI). This index serves as an indicator of the quality of life of a country’s people by measuring the health, education, inequality, poverty and security standards. Aside from the statistical measures of development like GDP growth, this is obviously a better measure of how people are actually doing. In this year’s HDI report Uganda was ranked 162 out of 189 countries with a HDI score of 0.516. The index goes from zero to one, the nearer you are to one the better. Our score puts us in the low human development category. But as bad as that sounds we have been worse. In 1990, the earliest year that these figures were compiled our score was 0.311 even the UN recognises that we have improved 66 percent in the last three decades. According to the UN figures life expectancy has risen to 60.2 years   from 45.5 in 1990; expected years of schooling has doubled to 11.6 fr...
Post a Comment
Read more

UMEME A RECOGNISED SUCCESS BUT …

  Recently the World Bank did a survey of the power utilities on the continent. Of the 39 utilities surveyed only two, in Uganda – Umeme and in Seychelles, were able to cover their operating costs and capital expenditures – maintenance and expansion of the grid. The report went on to point out that only 19 or about half of the surveyed utilities were able to meet their everyday costs like salaries. Essentially most of our power utilities on the continent are technically bankrupt. This has far reaching ramifications for the industry as a whole. When you, the client, pays your bill, Umeme then passes money up the line to pay the transmission and generation companies. If Umeme does not collect the revenues due to it or does not price the power at an appropriate rate, the pain will be felt up and down the sector. The transmission company would not be able to maintain and extend its network and the generation company would not be able to generate efficiently or build ...
Post a Comment
Read more

OIL IS COMING BUT LET US NOT FORGET OUR GOLD

The country is operating on a time table that first oil will be seen in 2020. There is a lot of frenetic activity around building supporting infrastructure, getting investment approvals, ensuring local participation and any number of other things to ensure readiness the moment the oil starts gushing down the pipeline to the coast. And so we should. I was intrigued the other day to read in the Kenyan press how Kisumu County, just across Lake Victoria from us, has set upon an ambitious project to ensure egg and poultry meat self-sufficiency for the county within the next few years. Under the plan Kisumu County will train 100 farmers every month over the 12 month pilot period. The intended aim is to be able to satisfy the county’s demand for 25,000 broilers and 75,000 eggs daily. Whereas I would prefer that this was private sector driven deal, I like this plan for a number of reasons not least of all that it shows leadership by the county and secondly, it relies o...
Post a Comment
Read more

SOROTI FRUIT FACTORY, A POTENTIAL GAME CHANGER FOR EASTERN UGANDA

On the weekend President Yoweri Museveni commissioned the Soroti Fruit Factory, which promises to change the fortunes of fruit farmers in the Teso region. "According to reports, the factory can process 129,000 tons of fruit annually or the equivalent of 3,225 trailer loads of fruit. There are 8.2 million fruit trees in the region, if each tree produces 80kg, the 656,000 tonnes resultant production will be more than sufficient to keep the factory running well into the future. Upgrades of the plant’s capacity is foreseeable very soon.... The factory’s products – packed juices, are to be sold locally and to the region. The Teso Tropical Fruit Farmers’ Co-operative has complained that they have been receiving sh200 a kg for their produce but have seen a doubling of the price to sh500 a kg by the factory. The cooperative is a 20 percent partner in the enterprise. Government through Uganda Development Corporation (UDC) owns the remainder. The factory is a $10.2mln...
Post a Comment
Read more

OUR HISTORICAL SITES SHOULD NOT GO UNATTENDED TO

Recently I was at Makerere University to attend a wedding ceremony. I hadn’t been on the university’s grounds in a while. I was shocked at how run down Mary Stuart and Lumumba Halls were. They are in need of serious work. These thoughts were reawakened with the recent launch of the coffee table book “Beyond the Reeds and Bricks” promoted by the tourism ministry, the cross cultural foundation of Uganda and the European Union Delegation. The book which is aimed at the protection of historical sites and buildings in Kampala, Entebbe and Jinja, is a moving collection of pictures of buildings and sites we know, but probably take for granted when we pass them as we go about our business. "Entebe za Mugula in Entebbe, Mackay’s Cave, the post office in Entebbe, the Stanbic Bank Branch in Jinja, Hamu Mukasa’s house in Mengo, the main building at Makerere , the Bahai Temple, Kibuli mosque and many other sites have pride of place among the 60 pictures in this book, which is ...
Post a Comment
Read more

GOOD BUSINESS SENSE WILL HELP OUR AGRICULTURE

The recent drought has at once alerted us to our deficiencies in our agriculture production and reawakened a drive to revitalise the sector. How is it that a country with half the arable land in the region has people suffering starvation? How is that our crops dried up in the fields when a fifth of our land mass is under water? And on a macro level how is it that the 70 percent of our people who rely on the land directly for a living, account for 30 percent of our economic output or GDP? Given our natural endowments in land, weather and manpower it is obvious that we are performing well below our potential. Reversing this trend of affairs should be the concern of everybody in the country. A lot of the debate has revolved around increasing production, value addition and market access locally and internationally. And rightly so. Taking one example the Uganda Coffee Development Authority says that the average yield per hectare is half a ton of coffee. But meanwhile with...
Post a Comment
Read more